Fitness

First Drafts: Beards and beer pair well in Colorado

Scott Witsoe of Wit's End Brewing Company took second place in the 2013 Best Beards of Craft Beer Competition. (Provided by Craftbeer.com)

Time for a little news of the beard.

Love it or hate it, there is a strong connection between the brewed and the bearded. The Boulder-based Brewers Association seized upon this with its first Best Beards of Craft Beer contest, which just concluded.

"Brewers love what they do, and part of what they love doing is growing their beards," said Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Brewers Association, which launched the contest by asking brewers to submit photos of their scruff.

Herz said the idea for the contest had been percolating since November, when a month-long event dubbed Movember urges men to grow out their facial hair to raise awareness of men's health issues.

Why do so many brewers prefer to be bearded? Herz talked about the fact that brewing draws artistic types.

"They're not afraid to express themselves," she said. "They're not selling a product with their beards, they're celebrating their personality."

Roach was not sure if his employer would approve of his lumberjack-like bushy beard when he began work as a kegging supervisor at Avery.

"I said I'd be more than happy to shave my beard if need be, and my boss and the brewmaster looked at me like I was insane," he said.

Ultimately, the man crowned King of Beards goes only by the name "Chili." He is the groundskeeper and gardener at Stone Brewing in Escondido, Calif. More than 7,000 beer fans around the world voted.

Witsoe of Wit's End took second place.

Change of heart

Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora is tapping the brakes on plans to start distributing its award-winning beers out of state.

Co-owner Kevin Delange shared the news at First Drafts' Denver Post Beer Night, a free event March 5 that featured a roundtable discussion about craft beer and samples brought by the three featured breweries — Dry Dock, Funkwerks and Crooked Stave.

Melis said the two breweries struck up a relationship after Oskar Blues brewer Tim Matthews, who runs the brewery's firkin program, visited with BrewDog brewers in Scotland. Oskar Blues is also planning a trans-Atlantic collaboration with BrewDog.

Resealing a growler

Not a fan of the flat beer inside growlers hours after they've been opened? One Denver inventor is looking to remedy that problem.

Robert Scott created the TapIt Cap, an attachment that essentially turns a growler into a mini-keg. The 29-year-old launched a Kickstarter project to get his invention off the ground.

The TapIt Cap reseals a standard threaded growler after it's been open. It is made up of a beer faucet, a carbon dioxide source and a pressure-relief valve. The tube in the prototype is slated to be replaced with a tap and tap handle for the final release.

Theoretically the beer in the growler should be good for a few months, Scott said, but he keeps a two-week cutoff.

"The way it's set up, it works like a keg," Scott said. "... But having a growler with beer in it in my refrigerator for two weeks and not being able to drink it was just a little more than I had the willpower for."

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